Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Portrait of Captain Williams' (1980, YMSM). 1

Description

A portrait of a man of about fifty years of age.

Sitter

'Captain Williams' was almost certainly Charles Phelps Williams (1804-1879) .

Whistler's mother, Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881), did not like Captain Williams. She wrote to Whistler in 1856, at a time when Williams and his daughter were travelling in Europe, 'I wonder if you have stumbled upon the Williams! I cant write you a sketch of his rudeness at me for I never have personal intercourse with him, but I hope you may never seek him tho he & Bessie & Georgie B are from Stonington.' 2 The daughter mentioned was Bessie Williams (1833-1902). Her friend, Georgia Palmer Babcock (Mrs C. P. Williams) (1837–1910), married Captain Williams after the death of his first wife.